This project aims to provide researchers with information and primary sources detailing productions of J. T. Grein’s Independent Theatre Society, a London subscription society that was active from 1891 through 1897.  This site was started by an advanced undergraduate English class at the City College of New York (English 47700—Advanced Topics in Literature and History: The Commercial and the Avant Garde in England in the 1890s) in the fall of 2015 and continued by a graduate seminar at City College (English B2008—Literature of the Fin de Siècle) in the spring of 2016, and it is edited and administered by Prof. Renata Kobetts Miller.  It will be a work-in-progress for a few years.

To learn more about the institution of the Independent Theatre Society, you might consult our ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR FURTHER READING.

Much more information about the Independent Theatre can be gained by looking more closely at its productions, many of which have received scant study.  Currently, we are pleased to provide materials pertaining to the following specific plays that were produced by the Independent Theatre Society.

The Kiss [Le Baiser], by Theodore de Banville (4 March 1892,Royalty Theatre)

Thérèse Raquin, by Emile Zola (9 October 1892, Royalty Theatre)

The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster (21 October 1892, Opéra Comique)

Widower’s Houses, by Bernard Shaw (9 December 1892, Opéra Comique)

Roses of Shadow (a duologue), by A. Raffalovich (26 January 1893, Athenaeum)

The Strike at Arlingford, by George Moore (21 February, 1893, Opera Comique)

Theory and Practice (a duologue), by A. Benham (28 April 1893, Terry’s Theatre)

A Blot in the ‘Scutcheon, by Robert Browning (15 June 2893, Opéra Comique)

Dante, by G. H. R. Dabbs and Ed. Righton (10 July 1893, St. George’s Hall)

A Question of Memory, by Michael Field (27 October 1893, Opera Comique)

Pater Noster, by François Coppée (27 October 1893, Opera Comique)

The Black Cat, by John Todhunter (8 December 1893, Opera Comique)

The Heirs of Rabourdin, by Emile Zola (23 February 1894, Opera Comique)

The Wild Duck, by Henrik Ibsen (4 May 1894, Royalty; and 17 May 1897, Globe)

Rosmersholm, by Henrik Ibsen (25 March 1895, Theatre de l’Oevre at Opera Comique)

L’Intruse, by Maurice Maeterlinck (25 March 1895, Theatre de l’Oevre at Opera Comique)

Pelléas et Melísande, by Maurice Maeterlinck (26 March 1895, Théâtre de l’OEuvre at Opéra Comique)

Solness le Constructeur, by Henrik Ibsen (27 March 1895, Théâtre de l’OEuvre at Opéra Comique)

Blanchette, by Eugene Brieux (9 December 1898, West Theatre, Albert Hall)